Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 Review (Windows)

Trend Micro’s Titanium Maximum Security 2011 suite promises lots on the surface. One program that handles spam, parental controls, data theft prevention, smartphone protection and more. However, it’s competing in a seriously saturated market, facing competitors such as Norton, Bit Defender and PC Tools, so can it stand out, or is it just another internet security suite?

Titanium Maximum Security boasts a quirky interface, not too dissimilar to that of PC Tools’ internet security program. It’s easy enough to get around, if not slightly unconventional, and somehow manages to fit in more features than one can shake a stick at. Seeing as there are so many features to cover, let’s drill through them one by one.

Anti-Virus

On the main screen of Titanium Maximum Security, you will find anti-virus protection front and centre. When running a scan, you can detect viruses and spyware, as well as any web threats that are present as well. Naturally, I took the liberty of infecting Windows with as many viruses as I could get hold of on short notice (to be honest, it really isn’t difficult…), and ran a scan to see how many the software would detect. To my surprise, it found the vast majority present, only missing one obscure trojan I ran across. Not bad at all.

A nice addition to the security scanning feature here is the ability to see a history of your threat level on your machine. This is represented via a chart, which will show you when you had more threats, and when your computer was relatively safe from malware. Statisticians, eat your hearts out.

Parental Controls

Child safety on the internet is a big issue right now, and most probably will be for as long as the internet is in existence, so parental controls are ideal for any parent that’s worried about what their child is browsing on the net. In Titanium Maximum Security, you can set these controls up straight from the main window.

You can assign controls to each account on the computer, and choose from an abundance of prepared settings. Of course, you can tweak these settings as much as you want, but for the user that wants to click a button and be done, this is an ideal approach.

Secure Erase

A feature that caught my eye when I was testing Titanium Maximum Security out was the ability to securely erase a file. Normally, when you delete a file, the computer just tends to write a few 1’s and 0’s over the data that you had, and it’s quite a bit easier than you’d think to restore deleted files again.

When you choose to securely erase some data with Titanium Maximum Security, you can choose to quickly or permanently erase it. Obviously, the permanently erase option is more secure, and random data is written over what you are deleting so it’s much more difficult to recover, even with the right tools.

Summary

After using Titanium Maximum Security 2011, I’ve grown rather fond of it. Despite jamming a lot of features in to a single program, the interface is easy to manage, and the features easily accessible and effective.

If you’re in the market for a security program, you may want to add Titanium Maximum Security to your list of “maybes”. At £59.95 for a years protection on 3 PC’s, it’s a tempting offer.